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“Are you even listening? You don’t arouse me. Regardless of becoming a queen, that’s a problem in itself. Hence, we should break our engagement now…”

Before I knew it, I was surrounded by rustling trees.

The voice of the boy who should be walking on the path right in front of me sounded strangely distant.

As a sudden shock hit my heart, my breathing became difficult, and cold sweat began to pour from my entire body.

The contours in front of me narrowed as if they were blacked out, and for a moment, a strange thought clouded my mind, ‘Is this what it looks like from the inside of my eye sockets?’

“…What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“No…”

As my sight distorted, the dazzling light reflected off the golden hair of the one who turned around. The strength in his bright blue eyes seemed to grip and pull me in.

(Who…?)

And also,

(Where? Here…)

But that wasn’t my concern.

My chest, it’s excruciating.

Why? Why is it so painful?

What’s happening?

(Could it be…)

Fear washed over me like a wave. ‘I might die,’ I thought, and my cheeks crumpled as if I was about to cry.

The boy in front of me widened his eyes in surprise and quickly reached out to support my falling arms.

But,

My heart was pounding unusually hard and fast.

My body’s strength was draining away.

“I can’t… help me…”

Thud.

It sounded like an oversized baggage had fallen.

Enveloped in a soft sensation, everything before me turned pitch black.

***

“…Hmm…”

As I slowly opened my heavy eyelids, I was in a dim fog.

Floating in the air felt unfamiliar, causing me to focus my eyes.

“What… where is this…”

I felt as though I was truly lying on a cloud, wrapped in the aftereffects of a terrible dream, and I jolted awake.

“Awake, are you? You’ve woken up, haven’t you? I have.”

“Huh? What is this…”

In front of me was…me.

Well, it wasn’t a mirror. How should I put it?

I scanned ‘me.’ The clothes were different from what I was wearing.

Looking down at myself, I was dressed in a fluffy champagne blue dress with a cinched waist, a style I had never worn before. My hair, somehow wavy at my chest, was a sparkling platinum blonde.

“What is this? A dream?”

In front of my bewildered mutterings, the one who was unmistakably me, yet not me, cocked her head, hand on her hip.

My hair was a cute pinkish brown and styled into soft waves at the salon, and it shone beautifully.

Seeing the innocent face of my bare-faced self talking down to me, I was taken aback.

“Well, it’s something like that. Since you lost consciousness, you’ve been asleep. And umm…”

“Rin.”

“Ah, yes. Rin. I’m Richeli. Nice to meet you, Rin. Though it seems our bodies have already switched. From now on, you’re Richeli, and I’m Rin.”

“Richeli…? What are you talking about? Where is this? What do you mean, I lost consciousness?”

“Wait. Explain it to me quickly.”

The person who looked like me, hand still on her hip, urged someone behind her.

Reluctantly stepping forward, that person was enveloped in light, looking like a character from a certain famous animation.

“What? Did I die? Is this heaven?”

“No… This is a place between the other world and this world.”

The person wrapped in the dazzling light spoke with a voice that sounded like a chorus of bells ringing simultaneously.

“Are you God?”

“Well, yes, you could say that. The source of creation… or something like that, one of those entities.”

“Why are you here? What are these two ‘me’s? What happened?”

“Well, you… Rin and Richeli, to put it bluntly, have died.”

“What?! Didn’t you deny it when I asked if I had died?”

“You did die, but you were immediately reincarnated. However, you switched bodies with each other. This is also one form of reincarnation.”

“W, wait, wait a minute…”

“I understand your confusion, but please calm down. I will explain everything.”

The being of light seemed to shrug as if troubled.

“So, both of you did die in the worlds you were living in. Have you heard of the cycle of reincarnation?”

“Well, not in detail.”

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, waiting for what would come next.

“Usually, when a soul passes away, it is called to heaven to rest for a while. However, recently, there has been an increase in people choosing to be reborn and live a new life immediately.”

“…Huh…”

A bad feeling started to creep in. I felt like I had heard something similar, probably from a light novel my sister or my best friend Yukine had read.

“And usually, a soul is breathed into a mother’s womb from the sky to be born. But recently, it’s become popular for souls to choose a body that is only ‘dead’ in the sense that the heart has stopped but is otherwise healthy. This trend is happening in heaven.”

“Popular…”

Despite being a god, the casual language left me feeling deflated.